Hadrian's wall

PART THREE
XXXIII

"Valeria left you behind?"

I am surprised. Throughout this narrative Savia has been portraying herself as the lady's closest confidant and steadfast friend. It seems strange that Valeria would ride off alone. I feel some sympathy for the loneliness the slave must have felt, like a dog abandoned by its master.

"It was the only way to buy time before they started pursuit," Savia explains matter-of-factly. Having won my alliance, she is not inclined to pity herself. "She slipped out of the hill fort shortly before dawn as she had before, her months in Caledonia giving her a better notion of which way to go this time. Arden had gambled that he'd win her heart by the time she knew enough to find her way, but he hadn't reckoned with her loyalties. She had to beat Galba to Petrianis."

"So you somehow persuaded them that she was still at Tiranen?"

"I pretended that Valeria was sick after Samhain and that I was tending the woman in her room. It helped that she'd slept with Arden. The other women were hesitant about pushing their way in because she had rank and power now. I also hinted that Valeria's heart was confused because she was already married. I suggested she was trying to sort out her choices and wished to be left alone while she did it."

"This worked?"

"For a day. By then it was too late to catch her."

"Did not Arden want to see her?"

"He was busy making preparations for war. But yes, of course he came looking for her. The man was in love. It was plain in his face and in his bearing."

"A happy foolishness," I suggest.

"Well put, inspector. You know from your own experience, perhaps?"

I admit such experience only to myself, a scabbed memory of hope and pain. "I have seen it in other men." My authority is maintained by solitude, I remind myself: by never confiding weakness, by never caring too much. There's some Galba in me, I suppose. "I'm surprised he accepted your excuses."

"He was confused and hurt that she wouldn't let him in. I told him that Valeria was confused herself, an explanation men readily swallow because of their low opinion of women and exalted opinion of themselves."

I let this pass without correction.

"He was also frantic with haste. It was late in the year, not the traditional warring season, but it was also past the harvest so men could ready quickly. If the barbarians were to take advantage of Roman weakness, they had to strike before the Wall was reinforced or winter became too deep. Their plan was to attack everywhere at once to keep garrisons from reinforcing each other. Whichever chieftain broke through first would fall upon the rear of the Romans at the next assault point."

"You seem to have a grasp of strategy."

"The Celts don't command, they lead. Arden had to explain the plan to the assembly in the Great House if anyone was to follow him. It didn't really matter if word reached the Romans. The question was exactly where the attacks would come, and exactly when."

"Of course. Still, the barbarians seem to have had more cunning and organization than I assumed. Perhaps my report can lay the blame for what happened on Celtic strategy, not Roman jealousies."

She shrugs. "They are brave and smart. But as an army…"

"Disorganized?"

"Independent. Individualistic. They join together, but in his heart each warrior is his own general. They fight not for an empire but for themselves. Not for victory so much as glory. Not for land but for loot. I listened to their boasting as weapons were sharpened and shields uncovered. They each wanted to be the hero."

"Which is why Rome has beaten them again and again."

"And why they are beaten but never conquered."

I pause, pondering her point. Then: "How did they finally discover that Valeria was gone?"

"Asa was suspicious and stole in while I slept. She sounded the alarm, and men came with swords drawn, dragging me out of bed."

"You must have been terrified."

"I wept and begged." She recounts this without shame, slaves allowed honesty denied their betters. Again, I envy them.

"Did you tell them that Valeria had gone to warn Marcus?"

"I told them that she'd left without telling. I suggested she was confused about love. Arden might have believed this, but none of the others were so blind. Galba wanted to roast me until I told the truth."

"Yet you are here, unroasted." It is a little joke, and draws only a little smile.

"Arden intervened. He said that even if she'd fled to the Wall, the Romans had no time to get more troops, and that frantic vigilance against impending attack would only tire them. He said he'd pledged no harm to me and was keeping that pledge. The men grumbled, but none dared challenge him. They thought that in everything else he was sensible, but on the issue of Valeria he was insane. It had become a fact of clan life. Galba left for the Wall, and the rest speeded their preparations."

"Kalin had tolerated and even fostered Arden's infatuation. What did he say?"

"He cast the future. He cut out the entrails of a sheep and studied them for signs. He threw the bones of fortune. He looked through one of those hollowed stones, a Keek Stane. He said Valeria's departure was the sign that they'd waited for; that her return to the Wall meant final war. He foresaw a great battle, the death of the enemies of the Caledonii, and a return to the old ways after a dark and bloody time."

"Did you believe him?"

"I didn't want to, but his troubled expression made me wonder. Prophets who only tell people what they want to hear are frauds because the future is never entirely in our favor. Those who admit uneasiness are more convincing. He'd seen something that confused him, and in the march south I had a chance to ask him. He told me he'd seen not just the oak but the cross. He asked me about my god again and how a holy man like Jesus, who seemed so weak, had become, in the retelling, so strong."

"He feared Christians."

"More than legionaries, I think. Kalin had the curse of knowing too much."

"It was foolish to assault Rome." I sound more arrogant than I feel, but it is a confidence based on a thousand years of history, an arrogance we Romans are born to. Savia looks at me in disbelief. "Of course, the barbarian horde was just barely turned back," I concede.

"And yet you seek to blame a single young woman." Her tone is disapproving.

"For her bewitchments," I justify myself. "She frustrated Galba. She was faithless to her husband. She broke the heart of her lover."

"It was they who abandoned and betrayed her," Savia counters. "All she was doing was to try to save them from themselves."

I ponder this view. This slave remains too loyal to her mistress, perhaps, but I'm intrigued by her perspective. Certainly I'm intrigued by Savia herself, as intrigued as a man can be by a woman.

"She provoked disloyalty," I insist.

Savia shakes her head. "She was the only one loyal. She was the one who tried to save them all…"